Cartel-Crisis Carlos

U.S. Moves to Declare Venezuela's "Cartel de los Soles" a Terror Group, Tightening the Noose

Published November 17, 2025

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A satirical trading-card style illustration called "Cartel-Crisis Carlos", lampooning the alleged merger of state power and drug-cartel apparatus in Venezuela as the U.S. State Department moves to brand the Cartel de los Soles a terrorist organisation. It turns a geopolitical crisis into a grotesque cartoon spectacle of control and corruption.

The Real Story

On November 16, 2025, the U.S. State Department announced it will designate the Cartel de los Soles - allegedly led by Nicolás Maduro and senior Venezuelan officials - as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) effective November 24. The claim is that the cartel-state network engages in drug trafficking and terrorist violence across the hemisphere. The move dovetails with a growing U.S. military build-up in the Caribbean, intended to pressure Caracas through both sanctions and force-projection. While the designation empowers the U.S. with new punitive measures, it stops short of authorising immediate military strikes - a legal gray zone that has raised questions in Congress.

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